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__________________OECD healthcare spending
Expenditure on healthcarehttp://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-data.htm
link is 2015 data (2013 Data below):
UK 8.5% of GDP of which 83.3% is public expenditure - 7.1% of GDP is public spending
US 16.4% of GDP of which 48.2% is public expenditure - 7.9% of GDP is public spending

I've been busy and missed the announcement some days back that Trump's US will do nothing to help rebuild Iraq... and even thinks Iraq owes the US money, bigly!! Not even a miserable dime for those waaaay beyond any blame, such as the Yazidi, who were, and are, nonetheless victims of Iraq II and its horrific denouement.

Soooo-ho-ho. "Proximate cause" means... gosh, "free beer" in the CSA-GOP-manboy dictionary. Surprised it made it in, given the thing is only 5 pages long, double-spaced, and in crayon.

__________________Driftwood on an empty shore of the sea of meaninglessness. Irrelevant, weightless, inconsequential moment of existential hubris on the fast track to oblivion. Spends that time swapping avatars if in August.
Summer penance for overeating: His real name is Count Douchenozzle von Stenchfahrter und Lichtendicks. - shemp

I've been busy and missed the announcement some days back that Trump's US will do nothing to help rebuild Iraq... and even thinks Iraq owes the US money, bigly!!

Of course not, we were not bombing ISIS out of the goodness of our hearts we were doing it for the Iraqi paycheck of course. You don't run the government like a business and let a profit center like the military not live up to its full potential.

I've been busy and missed the announcement some days back that Trump's US will do nothing to help rebuild Iraq...

But will complain mightily if and when Iran does.

The only role the US still has in the Middle East is as the tail to Israel's dog. Just as in the Western Pacific, it has progressed from being an out-of-area player to simply being out-of-area. Europe next (if not already).

Which was inevitable : Trump has merely hastened the process, which might well turn out to be an accidental positive. Bush Jr. tried the opposite in the Middle East, with predictably negative consequences.

__________________It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so - William of Conches, c1150

Trump's hotshot lawyer Michael Cohen now claims that the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels came from him, not from Trump or Trump's campaign. He, of course, still denies that Trump had an affair with Daniels, so I guess that we're to assume he was paying for her advice on how to repeal ObamaCare, or something like that.

Trump's hotshot lawyer Michael Cohen now claims that the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels came from him, not from Trump or Trump's campaign. He, of course, still denies that Trump had an affair with Daniels, so I guess that we're to assume he was paying for her advice on how to repeal ObamaCare, or something like that.

He should be prosecuted. I wonder if he's willing to go to jail to protect Trump.

__________________All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power & profit - Thomas Paine

Interesting perspective. The writer says Trump took over the Republican party by a "reverse merger," a sleazy business practice.

Quote:

Maybe you’re unfamiliar with this particular bit of legal, yet slightly sketchy, legerdemain. A privately owned business wants to sell shares to the public but for whatever reason wishes to avoid the close scrutiny of an initial public offering.

So the business owner finds a near-dead company that is already public, buys it for a song, grafts the private enterprise into the hollow public shell and — voila! — the deed is done.
.......
Trump snapped up the shell of the Republican Party and made it his public vehicle.

Why don't we hear from the White House why Russian mercs are attacking US troops in Syria, despite assurances by Putin that that won't happen?
More importantly, why isn't the press squeezing Sanders on this?
Looks like the current sanctions aren't working

__________________"When someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!"

Trump's hotshot lawyer Michael Cohen now claims that the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels came from him, not from Trump or Trump's campaign. He, of course, still denies that Trump had an affair with Daniels, so I guess that we're to assume he was paying for her advice on how to repeal ObamaCare, or something like that.

Trump's hotshot lawyer Michael Cohen now claims that the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels came from him, not from Trump or Trump's campaign. He, of course, still denies that Trump had an affair with Daniels, so I guess that we're to assume he was paying for her advice on how to repeal ObamaCare, or something like that.

Caroline O is following the Senate Intel Committee hearings where all the heads of the security agencies are being questioned. The Russia coverage is mentioned all over the place, but buried on her page of tweets is that Wray reports that they submitted initial findings on Porter back in July, that the WH asked them to dig further, that they filed a second report in November and then closed the file in January.

What does Parseltongue Huckabee-Sanders have to say on this? Why doesn't the news media hammer them on these topics?

Yes. It's like some ******* in a cabinet meeting said "poor people are eating too well. How can we cut spending on them and try to not look to evil?" Then another ******* says "let's make them all eat ramen noodles, powdered milk and canned food but say it's like Blue Apron." Trump liked it, said to put it in writing and none of them thought about any other factors.

This wish of theirs will go nowhere because it isn't a thought-out, serious policy proposal.

__________________All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power & profit - Thomas Paine

Yes. It's like some ******* in a cabinet meeting said "poor people are eating too well. How can we cut spending on them and try to not look to evil?" Then another ******* says "let's make them all eat ramen noodles, powdered milk and canned food but say it's like Blue Apron." Trump liked it, said to put it in writing and none of them thought about any other factors.

This wish of theirs will go nowhere because it isn't a thought-out, serious policy proposal.

Neither is the border wall and that is being built. This is not an administration to let the stupidity of the idea get in the way of its implementation.

Caroline O is following the Senate Intel Committee hearings where all the heads of the security agencies are being questioned. The Russia coverage is mentioned all over the place, but buried on her page of tweets is that Wray reports that they submitted initial findings on Porter back in July, that the WH asked them to dig further, that they filed a second report in November and then closed the file in January.

What does Parseltongue Huckabee-Sanders have to say on this? Why doesn't the news media hammer them on these topics?

No wonder Kelly's running around getting people to re-corroborate or un-corroborate and then de-corroborate various versions of the story.

Correction: Wray said "I can't get into the content of what was briefed to the White House ... What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March. And then a completed background investigation in late July. That soon thereafter, we received request for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November and that we administratively closed the file in January,"

So, three times.

__________________Ha! Foolmewunz has just been added to the list of people who aren't complete idiots. Hokulele

It's not that liberals have become less tolerant. It's that conservatives have become more intolerable.

Trump's hotshot lawyer Michael Cohen now claims that the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels came from him, not from Trump or Trump's campaign. He, of course, still denies that Trump had an affair with Daniels, so I guess that we're to assume he was paying for her advice on how to repeal ObamaCare, or something like that.

So it is finally almost official, Trump actually does pay porn stars to have sex with him while his third wife is recovering from the baby that she had with him.

Somehow, I expect that this news will not matter one whit to the various stupid religious people who support Trump, but these very same people are still so very upset when Bill Clinton had sort of sex with Monica Lewinsky.

Ugh!

__________________On 28 JUN 2018 'yuno44907' said: "I am god and you have to help me."
On 03 JUL 2018 'yuno44907' got banned from the Forum.

Trump's hotshot lawyer Michael Cohen now claims that the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels came from him, not from Trump or Trump's campaign. He, of course, still denies that Trump had an affair with Daniels, so I guess that we're to assume he was paying for her advice on how to repeal ObamaCare, or something like that.

I confirmed my recollection about Cohen -- he's not just another lawyer. He was Executive VP for Trump's company, glued to Trump's side for years.

Re this part -- he denied that the 130k came from the Trump company or the Trump campaign. He didn't rule out that it came from Trump personally. (Although the notion that Trump pays for anything out of his own pocket is fanciful.)

__________________

To survive election season on a skeptics forum, one must understand Hymie-the-Robot.

Sounds like a hot mess. The kind of idea that lots of politicians might have for about 15 minutes but then be quickly talked out of as the obvious flaws are pointed out by the staff. Grocery stores must have some sort of lobby with influence over Republicans, right? They need to reach out and crush this.

So it is finally almost official, Trump actually does pay porn stars to have sex with him while his third wife is recovering from the baby that she had with him.

Somehow, I expect that this news will not matter one whit to the various stupid religious people who support Trump, but these very same people are still so very upset when Bill Clinton had sort of sex with Monica Lewinsky.

Ugh!

No the official situation from the Trump campaign is that nothing happened,he never met her, and that his lawyer for no reason at all decided to giver her a 130k personal gift.

It's being investigated as an illegal campaign contribution. Not a jailable offense, probably, but still a crime.

Illegal campaign contributions are what sent Kushners dad to prison. Well that and videoing his brother in law with a prostitute and giving the tape to his sister as punishment for his brother in laws testimony.

Why don't we hear from the White House why Russian mercs are attacking US troops in Syria, despite assurances by Putin that that won't happen?
More importantly, why isn't the press squeezing Sanders on this?
Looks like the current sanctions aren't working

Originally Posted by Foolmewunz

Caroline O is following the Senate Intel Committee hearings where all the heads of the security agencies are being questioned. The Russia coverage is mentioned all over the place, but buried on her page of tweets is that Wray reports that they submitted initial findings on Porter back in July, that the WH asked them to dig further, that they filed a second report in November and then closed the file in January.

What does Parseltongue Huckabee-Sanders have to say on this? Why doesn't the news media hammer them on these topics?

No wonder Kelly's running around getting people to re-corroborate or un-corroborate and then de-corroborate various versions of the story.

Because "fire that son of a bitch!" and "******** countries!" and "military parade!" and "squirrel!"

__________________"There's vastly more truth to be found in rocks than in holy books. Rocks are far superior, in fact, because you can DEMONSTRATE the truth found in rocks. Plus, they're pretty. Holy books are just heavy." - Dinwar

Red herring. But it is very obvious that they paid her hush money. They've even admitted it. It isn't a campaign contribution though. Its extortion. Or suchlike.

Depends on where the money came from. It is not a valid use of campaign funds to pay hush money, call it the Hastert Law. Of course it wasn't hush money, that would imply that something happened and there is an NDA involved things that president himself denies.

Sounds like a hot mess. The kind of idea that lots of politicians might have for about 15 minutes but then be quickly talked out of as the obvious flaws are pointed out by the staff. Grocery stores must have some sort of lobby with influence over Republicans, right? They need to reach out and crush this.

Of course they have a lobby, and it's mobilizing. An article I read said 20% of all food stamp dollars are spent at Wal-Mart. The administration, however, certainly has a point when it says that the government should be able to negotiate lower prices rather than pay retail.

Milton Friedman and many others have long argued that welfare benefits should be paid in cash because "consumers know what they want better than anyone else." This can go into Aspergery territory when you get articles published in journals with titles like "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas Giving."

But there should be a way to merge the two ideas. If the government really is paying face-value, then it needs to stop. The feds should negotiate it so that $100 grocery bill only gets paid $90 (or whatever). Frankly, I'm shocked (if) this isn't already the case.

The home delivery stuff is just stupid, and underscores the point that Republicans are more interested in scolding the poor. For many, I bet it'd be "worth it" to see poor people dump asparagus in the trash because it justifies their long-standing contempt. "See! See!!"

__________________April 13th, 2018:
Ranb: I can't think of anything useful you contributed to a thread in the last few years.

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